Ole Timey Cattle

[cowmaker]

I often wonder when I put out Mineral how the old timers managed?? There was no Tractor Supply in town. Did they make their own mineral??

 

[dun]

I often wonder when I put out Mineral how the old timers managed?? There was no Tractor Supply in town. Did they make their own mineral??

We never used it. Might put out a white salt block once in while but that was it. But those were different times. The percentage of calf crop wasn;t even thought of. You gathered the cows once a year and shipped th calves. If you moved them from winter to summer pasture you would gather them twice. You also didn;t have 600 and 700 lb weaning weights.

 

[Jogeephus]

If you want to step back into time you should see my friend's setup. I'm told he nets around $60,000 a year off his woods cattle. How many head is he running? What's his calving percentage? Vaccinations? Steering? ADG? WW? All of this is irrelevant in his eyes. During the winter months he will fill the syrup tanks and bring them a roll of hay every few days whether they need it or not. Not exactly a place you want to bring an FFA tour group and you definitely don't want to volunteer to help get the calves up but the bottom line is he is making money. Though I wouldn't want to follow in his exact footsteps I do see some things that he is doing that I could do that would increase my profitablility.

 

[novatech]

Grandpa used vinegar. Uncle was more modern. He drenched them with some green stuff. No squeeze chutes or head gates, we just used nose tongs and snubbed them up to a post.
The biggest problem was screw worms. We used a black tar called 62. Most all the calves were treated in the pasture. One man would rope the calf and treat it while the other kept the momma away. Horses were not just a pleasurable pet back then.
Kerosene was used for cancer eye, pink eye, and wounds. We used powdered sulfur a lot for infections.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Grandpa used vinegar. Uncle was more modern. He drenched them with some green stuff. No squeeze chutes or head gates, we just used nose tongs and snubbed them up to a post.
The biggest problem was screw worms. We used a black tar called 62. Most all the calves were treated in the pasture. One man would rope the calf and treat it while the other kept the momma away. Horses were not just a pleasurable pet back then.
Kerosene was used for cancer eye, pink eye, and wounds. We used powdered sulfur a lot for infections.

yrs ago we used powdered sulfur for ticks we would put it out with salt freechoice

 

[Rustler9]

Jogeephus,
Does your uncle have piney woods cattle or are you just calling them woods cattle because he lets them roam? There's also a line of Longhorn cattle called the Woods line that were kept by a fellow named Grady Woods. His family had them for around 100 years. They are one of the purest lines of old time Longhorn cattle-they haven't been crossed up with anythng else. They have twisty horns and are kind of small.

 

[Jogeephus]

Jogeephus,
Does your uncle have piney woods cattle or are you just calling them woods cattle because he lets them roam? There's also a line of Longhorn cattle called the Woods line that were kept by a fellow named Grady Woods. His family had them for around 100 years. They are one of the purest lines of old time Longhorn cattle-they haven't been crossed up with anythng else. They have twisty horns and are kind of small.

Not my uncle just a friend. He's runs brafords in the woods and angus in his pastures. The brafords are seem to be pretty hardy animals. I don't know what type longhorns the other fella is running I just know they are longhorns. They seem to be a thin looking cow to me but he likes them a lot. He says they'd rather eat saw palmetto than grass.

 

[Ryder]

If you want to step back into time you should see my friend's setup. I'm told he nets around $60,000 a year off his woods cattle. How many head is he running? What's his calving percentage? Vaccinations? Steering? ADG? WW? All of this is irrelevant in his eyes. During the winter months he will fill the syrup tanks and bring them a roll of hay every few days whether they need it or not. Not exactly a place you want to bring an FFA tour group and you definitely don't want to volunteer to help get the calves up but the bottom line is he is making money. Though I wouldn't want to follow in his exact footsteps I do see some things that he is doing that I could do that would increase my profitablility.

This is a very good post.
There are peope that run cattle in the woods, swamps or wherever and make money doing it.
It works for them because they spend hardly any money. If calving per cent and weaning weight is low, so be it. What they get is clear money and that's a lot better than a lot bigger gross income and a still bigger expense pay out.

Some of them have been doing this from before most ,or all, people on this boards were born. They know what works for them and could care less what anybody else thinks.
To steal a Caustic phrase, a lot of them "have enough money to burn a wet mule". But you would never know it to look at them.

 

[mermill2]

Better to put zero into something and get $4 back than it is to put $4 into it and get $5 back.

 

[andybob]

I recall a worm remedy "nicotine and bluestone" for ruminants, tobacco amd copper sulpuate. The cattle were herded in the days before fencing, and would be grazed over a wide area, the rotation was over a long enough period to break most worm cycles, with wildlife moving in behind, taking up cattle worm eggs which would not incubate in different species. Diseases and parasites were not too great a problem when adapted native cattle were ranched, the introduction of exotics from Europe struggled with ticks and flies, and so dip tanks became the order of the day on all farms and ranches.

 

[talldog]

Better to put zero into something and get $4 back than it is to put $4 into it and get $5 back.

You hit the nail on the head !! :tiphat: